For almost a year, Luis Flores has been lobbying mortgage lender IndyMac Federal Bank FSB to cut his house payments. They have doubled since he refinanced his home loan in 2005 and he can’t afford them, Flores says.
“Every time I call them they say they can’t help,” said Flores, 31, a graphic designer and bartender in Contra Costa County, California, where one in every 146 homes is in foreclosure. “They tell you the solution is that they take Visa or MasterCard.”
Now Flores has a new ally: the Antioch, California-based Contra Costa Interfaith Supporting Community Organization, one of a growing number of religious and community groups pushing lenders to renegotiate troubled loans so owners can stay in their homes.
Some in Congress have called for measures to slow the foreclosure process and force banks to renegotiate mortgage terms with borrowers, and states such as California and North Carolina have passed such laws.
Still, more homeowners are turning to groups such as the Contra Costa organization for help in the early stages of mortgage problems, before they result in foreclosures. An affiliated group called the PICO National Network, based in Oakland, California, says it is working with hundreds of families in Contra Costa County and plans to help as many as a million homeowners nationwide.
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please keep us updated ,we also are concerned….about rising payments